Getty Andie MacDowell on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015
Actress Andie MacDowell’s career is red hot right now. Her new Hallmark Channel series “The Way Home” has kicked off with impressive ratings and, thanks to a new Hollywood deal, her latest feature film, “My Happy Ending,” is set to debut exclusively at movie theaters across the U.S. on February 24, 2023. Meanwhile, she’s also wrapped filming another feature film with Orlando Bloom. Here’s what you need to know:
Andie MacDowell Will Lead Ensemble Female Cast in ‘My Happy Ending’
GettyActress Andie MacDowell
Independent film distributor Roadside Attractions has bought the rights to “My Happy Ending,” according to Deadline, with plans to release it in theaters nationwide on February 24.
The film is based on a popular Israeli play by Anat Gov about a famous Hollywood actress, played by MacDowell, who goes into hiding while seeking treatment for a health issue. At a British hospital, she meets three unique women — an aging rocker, a young mother, and an always-single, retired schoolteacher — who help her face her fears.
According to Screen Daily, MacDowell filmed the movie in Wales in late 2021 alongside castmembers including Miriam Margoyles, known for her roles in “The Age of Innocence” and “Call The Midwives,” Sally Phillips from the “Bridget Jones” movies, and Rakhee Thakrar from the Netflix series “Sex Education.”
On its opening weekend, Deadline reported “My Happy Ending” will compete with several other movies making their box office debuts including “Cocaine Bear,” “Linoleum,” the animated “Mummies” and “Jesus Revolution.”
Andie MacDowell’s Next Movie Will Be an Action-Thriller With Orlando Bloom
GettyAndie MacDowell, Orlando Bloom
MacDowell hasn’t only been working on feel-good projects like “My Happy Ending” and “The Way Home,” which has enjoyed impressive ratings since its January 15 premiere. MacDowell also filmed a new action-thriller called “Red Right Hand” with co-star Orlando Bloom, which is in post-production and doesn’t have a release date yet. According to the Courier-Journal, Bloom and MacDowell were in Kentucky during the spring of 2022.
The movie, according to Deadline, will feature Bloom’s character, Cash, trying to live a quiet life with his family in the Appalachians, but comes up against MacDowell’s “sadistic” character, Queenpin Big Cat, who runs the town. Cash is then pulled into “a nightmare that blurs the lines between good and evil.”
When a reporter at Marie Claire told MacDowell the synopsis sounded dark, she responded, “That’s an understatement!”
“But there’s a difference between playing it and watching it,” she continued. “It’s a community in the hills of Kentucky, and (my character) is the head honcho. She’s been there forever, and it’s like she’s the top mafia boss. Instead of the godfather, she’s the godmother. She’s very poetic. The way she speaks is so beautifully written. It’s hard to find roles like this, you know?”
MacDowell, 64, has been working in Hollywood for over four decades. She has said she’s grateful whenever she’s cast for projects that challenge her, from playing a woman with bipolar disorder in the hugely-popular Netflix miniseries, “Maid,” co-starring her daughter Margaret Qualley, to Hallmark’s “The Way Home,” in which she’s the matriarch of a family who’s experienced unspeakable tragedies.
“One of the beauties of getting older is that you get more opportunities, and the roles become more multi-dimensional and richer,” she told Parade in January. “I’m really enjoying it because these roles are not dependent on how I look; it’s all about how I think and feel.”